Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle performing at a charity fundraiser last year. Getty Images

British fans of US comedian Dave Chappelle were left disappointed after three last-minute London shows booked for next weekend (2 - 4 February) sold out in just a few minutes. The shows are part of a small European tour testing work-in-progress material.

Tickets for the shows, which are taking place at venues capable of holding just a few hundred people, went on sale at 10am UK time this morning (27 January) - and sold out almost immediately.

Chappelle will take to the stage at Proud Camden on Friday, 2 February, the Leicester Square Theatre the next day and Greenwich comedy club Up The Creek on the Sunday.

To keep the new material under wraps, attendees will not be able to have their phones on them during the performance. Fans have been encouraged to leave them at home, or hand them over for safe storage before the shows begin.

Chappelle's shot to fame with his early 2000s sketch comedy hit Chappelle's Show, going on to perform around the globe once the show ended in 2005. In recent years he's enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to two popular stand-up specials commissioned for Netflix: The Art of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Fans voiced their disappointed on Twitter, including Harry Potter actor Sean Biggerstaff, who wrote: "Spent 10 minutes in that queue really thinking I was gonna get Dave Chappelle tickets. I am inconsolable."

"The fact that Dave Chappelle tickets sold out in the space it took me to refresh the page is proof there [are] too many people about," wrote another fan.

"Not gonna lie I would of loved Dave Chappelle tickets... Gutted," wrote Jessica, who accompanied her tweet with a gif of a child with a single tear rolling down his cheek. Another fan, comedian Sam Picone included a gif of his own thoughts, this time of Chappelle himself.

"Still wounded about these Dave Chappelle tickets," he wrote.

London